Posted by: JaredFurtado on Oct 27, 2011

By: Sonya Kolesnikov-Jessop

SINGAPORE — Pahang State in central Malaysia is about to become home to the world’s largest commercial farm project producing microalgae for biofuel. The farm will start to take shape in the first quarter of next year, on a 2,020-hectare, or 5,000-acre, site near Rompin, a small township in
the southern part of the state, said Khoo Koay Hock, chief executive of Pahang Biodiesel.

Costing an estimated 1.2 billion ringgit, or $383 million, Malaysian Integrated Algae Valley, as it will be known, will step up output in three phases, reaching full production over a three-year period.

Hundreds of open-air freshwater ponds will be constructed covering an area of about 1,400 hectares, with the rest of the land used for infrastructure, including a research and education center.

When completed, the farm could produce about 500,000 tons of dry biomass a year, with an oil yield of about 30 percent, equivalent to 150,000 tons of biofuel per year, said Syed Isa Syed Alwi, chief executive of Algaetech International, which is providing the technology for the project. “It is a very small amount of biofuel compared to what the world needs, but it is a start,” Mr. Syed Alwi said.

Microalgae, or phytoplankton, are tiny plant-like organisms. Feeding by direct absorption of sunlight and carbon dioxide, without roots or leaves, they measure up to 50 micrometers, about 2-thousandths of an inch, in diameter. Hundreds of thousands of freshwater and marine species exist, forming the basis for most food chains, and many contain a significant volume of high-quality oil that can be converted into biofuel.

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